It’s way too soon to pick a side in the Democratic Primaries, and though he still doesn’t have a shot in hell, I’m not yet ready to abandon Dennis Kucinich in favor of this go-round’s version of Howard Dean, Barack Obama. To his credit, Obama doesn’t rub me the wrong way like Dean did, coming off as more sincere and a tad less opportunistic.
While he denies any connection to the brilliant “Vote Different” clip that’s set the political world abuzz — a claim which the clip’s admitted producer, Philip de Vellis, a strategist with Blue State Digital, the firm that designed Sen. Obama’s spiffy Web site, has confirmed — I don’t think there will be any significant fallout to come from it.
deVellis was either fired or resigned, depending on whom you ask, but as he noted, writing for The Huffington Post:
There are thousands of other people who could have made this ad, and I guarantee that more ads like it — by people of all political persuasions — will follow. This shows that the future of American politics rests in the hands of ordinary citizens. This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed.
Yes, indeed, the game has changed dramatically since Howard Dean’s revolutionary 2004 campaign, and I think someone like Obama, seemingly without the scandalous past and tons of baggage the likes of Clinton and Giuliani have, is better positioned to take full advantage of it, either directly, or indirectly, through organic guerilla efforts like de Vellis’ “Vote Different”.
It may make for one of the uglier campaigns yet, but I think the long term benefit will be for the good.
Side note: If he wins the nomination, who does Obama tap as his Vice President? Bill Richardson? Barbara Boxer? Michael Bloomberg?
